Professional Development Serices for Postdocs and Graduate Students

Kimberly Tanner is a faculty member in the Department of Biology, San Francisco State University and has published extensively on effective undergraduate science instruction. Her research group, SEPAL: The Science Education Partnership and Assessment Laboratory, is interested in how people learn science, especially biology, and how teachers and scientists can collaborate to make science teaching and learning in classrooms – Kindergarten through college –more like how scientists work. Just like other science research groups, they ask questions about what they’re interested in, design ways to collect evidence to address our questions, and analyze and share the data that they collect with other researchers in our field. SEPAL researchers are studying a variety of issues in biology education and science education, with a special emphasis on developing novel assessment tools to better understand how people from children to practicing scientists conceptualize the biological and physical world. Similar to studies in the field of physics education, this research in biology education holds the promise of revealing insights into preconceptions and misconceptions in biology that can guide strategies for curriculum improvement and teaching reform. Dr. Tanner holds a PhD in Neuroscience from UCSF.

Co-sponsored by ONDAS, Center for Bioengineering, GSDS, hhmi, WISE and the UCSB Library.